HSC Legislative Update AB 84 SB 414

HSC LEGISLATIVE UPDATE



AB84 (In Committee) &SB414 (Hearing set for 4/23/25)

HSC would like to inform the homeschool community about two California bills that would affect Public Charter Schools in California, should they pass.

HSC is providing information and links below for you to investigate these bills and take appropriate action depending on your stance after doing your research. Both bills primarily address the financial auditing of charters but each has a different take on vendors and we explain this below.



AB84 

Bill Title: School accountability: Office of the Education Inspector General: school financial and performance audits: charter school authorization, oversight, operations, and contracting: data systems.

Link: https://legiscan.com/CA/text/AB84/id/3182274

One portion of the bill that is particularly concerning is in part 7 of the legislative digest at the beginning before the text of the bill. It states:

The bill would prohibit a local educational agency from allocating, or advertising the availability of, funds or credits to be spent at the discretion of a pupil’s parent, guardian, or education rights holder for educational enrichment activities that are (A) not provided by a credentialed employee of the local educational agency for the pupil and (B) are paid for by the local educational agency.

We interpret this to mean that vendors and programs currently used by charter families that are not provided by a credentialed employee of the public charter, will no longer be accessible.



SB414 

Bill Title: School accountability: school financial and performance audits: chartering authorities: tort liability: educational enrichment activities: flex-based instruction.

Link: https://legiscan.com/CA/text/SB414/id/3191071

In the legislative digest, part 6 concerns vendors:

(6) Commencing July 1, 2026, this bill would require a school district, county office of education, or charter school to only enter into an agreement for the provision or arrangement of educational enrichment activities with a vendor that is vetted and approved pursuant to the bill. The bill would authorize a local educational agency to expend public funds for the provision or arrangement of educational enrichment activities, provided that all educational enrichment activities, materials, and programs are nonsectarian.

The bill would require the governing board or body of a local educational agency, in approving any contract for vendor services for educational enrichment activities, to establish specified policies and procedures to ensure educational value, pupil safety, and fiscal reasonableness, and would further require that these policies ensure that vendor services for educational enrichment activities meet designated criteria. The bill would require auditing of approval of, and compliance with, policies and procedures established under the bill to be included in designated annual audit reports.

The bill would require a vendor contract that will exceed $100,000 in a fiscal year to be approved by the governing board or body of the local educational agency in an open public meeting. The bill would also require any educational enrichment activity provided by a school to be approved and verified by the pupil’s assigned teacher as relevant to specific educational assignments and educationally appropriate for that pupil.

This language only requires that the vendors be vetted, nonsectarian, approved by the pupil’s teacher, and additional approval is needed if the vendor contract exceeds 100k in a fiscal year. This is similar to current practice.



Contact your representative(s) to let them know your thoughts about these two bills.